FT: Trim 1-19 | Gaeil Colmcille 1-10
Trim senior footballers progressed to the semifinal stage of the Feis Cup with another impressive win against a fancied Gaeil Colmcille (GC) team in Trim on Wednesday night (4/3/26).
GC played with the benefit of a stiff crossfield wind into the town end goals but it was Trim that got off to the better start and had three points registered in as many minutes through David Lernihan, Conor Quigley and Owen O’Connor before their opponents opened their account. Things settled after that as both teams tested their opponents defences with little return.
In the 11th minute David Lernihan sent in a great diagonal ball from the 45-metre line to Owen O’Connor who collected and shot just over the bar. This seemed to inject greater urgency into the GC attack, and they finished a fine sweeping movement with a shot which gave Eoin O’Reilly no chance and saw the sides level for the first time. Five minutes later they took the lead with a good point after a lot of pressure.
Trim responded a minute later to draw level with a brilliant Sean Foley point but GC maintained pressure on a solid Trim defence and forced a penalty in the 21st minute which was brilliantly saved by Eoin O’Reilly and moved swiftly from the Trim half into attack and finished with a great point from Neil Sweeney.
Trim now seemed to come to life as David Lernihan caught a high ball at midfield, moved quickly upfield and sent another spot on pass diagonally across the field to the lively Sean Foley who made no mistake with a fierce shot to the back of the GC net to give Trim a 1-6 to 1-2 lead. However, GC fought back over the next five minutes and got three close range frees which they converted to leave the minimum between the sides before Conor Quigley steadied the ship and stretched the lead on the 30th minute with a fine long range point to leave the half time score:
Trim 1-7 Gaeil Colmcille 1-5.
Trim dominated the opening ten minutes of the second half but only added points from Tom Carmody and Gary Fleming who was introduced at half time. It seemed that GC took heart from Trim’s lack of progress and quickly fired over two points. This seemed to spur Trim on and David Lernihan scored the first two pointer of the match on the twelfth minute. James Murray followed suit two minutes later with a great two pointer from way out near the sideline as Trim started to put daylight between the teams.
For the next 15 minutes Trim dominated the match as the defence snuffed out attack after attack and midifelders held sway. Points from Tom Carmody, another two pointer from David Lernihan, followed by a two pointer and a single point from James Murray finished the Trim scoring. GC finished with points in the 29th 31st and 33rd minutes left the final score Trim 1-19 to Gaeil Colmcille 1-10.
Trim had many players who caught the eye on the night. The backs were solid throughout and made GC fight for every score they got. Eoin Ryan, Jack McGowan and Aonghus Short showed particularly well. Quigley and Lernihan were prominent throughout and Sean Foley and Eoin O’Connor caused problems throughout the match.
Picking a man of the match one could not go further than the Trim No.1 Eoin O’Reilly. His command of his area, a penalty save and precision kick outs saw him give a near perfect display as he grows in confidence with each match.
Panel Eoin O’Reilly, Conor McGinley, Jack McGowan, Aonghus Shortt, Cathal O’Reilly, Eoin Ryan, Eoin Sweeney, David Lernihan, Conor Quigley, Daire Lynch, Tom Carmody, James Murray, Sean Foley, Eoin O’Connor, Daniel Murray, Ruairí McCaffrey, James Cullen, Evan Collins, Brian Bolger, Tadhg Foley, Josh Harris, Gary Fleming
